


Turn, Turn Twice

by Anna_Hopkins



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Mentor Voldemort (Harry Potter), Time Travel, Time Turner (Harry Potter), Trope Subversion/Inversion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:13:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24638128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anna_Hopkins/pseuds/Anna_Hopkins
Summary: Harry watches Sirius fall through the Veil and thinks,there has to be something I can do to save him.Luckily, the Department of Mysteries has a large supply of Time-Turners.That’ll sort things, right?
Relationships: Harry Potter & Tom Riddle | Voldemort
Comments: 14
Kudos: 172
Collections: Harry Potter, Tomarrymort Live Writes





	Turn, Turn Twice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: the first scene taken verbatim from _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_. My own words start at "But then - "

> It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch...
> 
> And Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared beyond the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind and then fell back into place.
> 
> Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing - Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second...
> 
> But Sirius did not reappear.
> 
> "SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!"
> 
> He had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just beyond the curtain, he, Harry, would pull him back out again...
> 
> But as he reached the ground and sprinted toward the dais, Lupin grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back.
> 
> "There's nothing you can do, Harry-"
> 
> "Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
> 
> "It's too late, Harry-"
> 
> "We can still reach him-"
> 
> Harry struggled hard and viciously, but Lupin would not let go...
> 
> "There's nothing you can do, Harry... nothing... He's gone."
> 
> "He hasn't gone!" Harry yelled.
> 
> He did not believe it, he would not believe it; still he fought Lupin with every bit of strength he had: Lupin did not understand, people hid behind that curtain, he had heard them whispering the first time he had entered the room - Sirius was hiding, simply lurking out of sight-
> 
> "SIRIUS!" he bellowed, "SIRIUS!"
> 
> "He can't come back, Harry," said Lupin, his voice breaking as he struggled to contain Harry. "He can't come back, because he's d-"
> 
> "HE - IS - NOT - DEAD!" roared Harry. "SIRIUS!"
> 
> There was movement going on around them, pointless bustling, the flashes of more spells. To Harry it was meaningless noise, the deflected curses flying past them did not matter, nothing mattered except that Lupin stop pretending that Sirius, who was standing feet from them behind that old curtain, was not going to emerge at any moment, shaking back his dark hair and eager to reenter the battle-
> 
> Lupin dragged Harry away from the dais, Harry still staring at the archway, angry at Sirius now for keeping him waiting-
> 
> But some part of him realized, even as he fought to break free from Lupin, that Sirius had never kept him waiting before... Sirius had risked everything, always, to see Harry, to help him... If Sirius was not reappearing out of that archway when Harry was yelling for him as though his life depended on it, the only possible explanation was that he could not come back... That he really was…

But then - hadn't there been a moment like this before? A moment when Harry thought Sirius was lost to him, a moment where he'd lost hope of saving his godfather? He had thought Sirius was doomed to be executed in the tower at Hogwarts, two years ago, only to find out...

To find out that there was time to save him after all.

There was  _ time. _

Harry set aside his fury at Bellatrix, because there was still something he could do: he pulled away from Lupin's grip in a different direction than the dais, turning and running out of the room with his friends shouting after him, because  _ there was time. _ A whole  _ shelf _ of time, if he just went back to the room he'd seen earlier, with that bauble with the hummingbird inside.

He ran, and ran, dodging spells and the escaped brains that had gone after Ron, slipping through doorways until - yes! There! The shelf of Time-Turners was just as it had been when he'd left it, immaculate, unharmed by the battle.

He reached out for the first one, threw its thin gold chain around his neck, and spun it, as far as it would go, back and back and back. There would be time. He would  _ make _ time.

Closing his eyes, he felt the wave of magic rush over him, and when he opened them again: he was in the same room, but there was no wreckage of other places. He was in the past.

Harry went to turn the hourglass again, but it wouldn't turn any further - so he looked to the shelf, and was surprised to see a gap where the Time-Turner he was wearing had been placed. He flung off the one he was wearing and replaced it there, reaching for the next, put  _ that _ on, and Turned it back-

Again and again Harry did this; he knew from Hermione that Time-Turners could only go back a few hours at a time, but he didn't remember how many, precisely. Surely, he concluded, the best thing would be to use  _ all _ of them, and go back as far as possible? He worked his way down the shelf, and then through the next row, until finally there were no more Time-Turners left to use.

The adrenaline rush of battle had worn off, now, and Harry sagged against the shelf, exhausted. He cast Tempus; it was the same time of night as it had been before, maybe a few minutes later than when Harry had originally started (relatively speaking), and he had no idea what day it was, but that didn't matter. What mattered was getting out of here, finding out how far back he'd gone, and making a plan.

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak out from his pocket and tossed it over his head, making his way to the exit door. He spotted a calendar hung on the wall by the door with days crossed off:  _ December 18, 1995. _

He froze, feeling a shiver down his spine. The eighteenth - that had been when -

When Nagini attacked Mr. Weasley in the corridor leading to the Department of Mysteries.

The frantic energy that had begun to drain out of him made a return as Harry bolted out of the Time Room and into the circular chamber that separated him from the rest of the Ministry.

Perhaps it was because he was under the Invisibility Cloak: the room didn't spin, this time. Harry opened door after door, pulse pounding in his ears, until he finally found the door that led out into the long corridor of his dreams-

Only to see a figure crumple to the floor, blood everywhere, and the massive shimmering outline of a serpent - Nagini,  _ Disillusioned _ \- retreating down the corridor toward the lifts.

He'd been too late.

_ He'll live, _ Harry told himself,  _ he'll be okay, he's just in pain. _ "Come back here!" he shouted at the snake, trying to dash after her; but he'd been running as fast as he could for a long time, now, and was beginning to tire. "Nagini!" He stumbled, winded, leaning against the wall. "Damn it..."

Through tunneled vision, Harry realized that Nagini's shape had not disappeared; in fact, she was.. returning to him, like he'd asked.  _ "Masster," _ the serpent complained,  _ "you ssaid this tassk was for Nagini! Masster iss too weak sstill to be out of the nesst." _

Harry slumped back against the wall, a bit terrified, as the giant snake slipped under the Invisibility Cloak to coil around him, her huge diamond-shaped head resting on his shoulder.  _ "Nagini hass finisshed sscouting anywayss. Masster musst return to hiss quarterss." _

_ "No need," _ Harry protested between heaving gasps for air,  _ "Go on your own-" _

He heard the serpent laugh - 'ki, ki, ki' - and coil tighter around him, but not crushing him.  _ "'Esscape'," _ Nagini recited, confusing Harry - why was she telling him to escape now? - until he felt the familiar hook in his navel of a Portkey activating.

He spun, and his vision darkened, and in no time at all he was somewhere else.

The wards alerted Voldemort to Nagini's return by Portkey a few minutes later than he had expected. He rose from his desk, stretching; it was a long walk down to the end of Malfoy Manor's western wing, where his quarters lay, and he was still acclimating to his new body despite the success of the ritual that created it, so he took his time.

There was a lot of hissing coming from the other side of the door to his bedchamber; had Nagini been injured in the Portkey transit? Voldemort drew his wand, concerned for his Horcrux's welfare - there had never been a living Horcrux before; who knew if it could be injured - and carefully pushed the door open.

_ "-been a mistake, let go, I'm not him-" _

_ "Resst, Masster, you are confused from the sspell-travel-" _

What?

Voldemort closed the door behind him, quite concerned now; he squinted at the bed, where Nagini's coils were tangled with what appeared to be a human figure, one who was hissing frantically again that 'there's been a mistake-'

_ "Ssilence," _ he hissed, and both serpent and human - if it  _ were _ a human - froze.

_ "Sshit," _ the human said.

The voice seemed familiar, but:  _ "Nagini, who is thiss you have brought to me?" _ Voldemort asked.

_ "Nagini thought he was you, Masster, but perhapss not?" _ the serpent reared up to loom over the figure, who seemed even less able to see in the dark than Voldemort was.

Voldemort stalked closer to the bed to do the same, and with a flick of his wand, turned on the lights in the room.

Half-covered by a shroud of silvery fabric, throwing an arm over his eyes at the sudden brightness, was-

_ "Harry Potter?" _

"H-how long've you been there?" Potter asked in a strained voice, scrabbling at the fabric to try and sit up.

He had switched back to English now, looking up at the Dark Lord with wide green eyes through askew glasses. "Long enough," Voldemort answered, unvoiced thoughts adding,  _ to come to several conclusions. _

Nagini uncoiled herself from Potter's limbs, forming a scaled barrier on the opposite side of the bed which would prevent Potter from leaving that way. The teenaged wizard remained pinned under Voldemort's gaze, fear evident in his posture; it was so different from the defiant boy he'd faced after his resurrection that it gave the Dark Lord pause. "I can explain," Potter rasped, flopping back against the bedding with exhaustion that couldn't be feigned. "I can explain."

What in the world was Potter going to say to talk his way out of this?

Harry had no idea what he was going to say to talk his way out of this.

He was beginning to feel the pain from his injuries earlier in the Battle; more than that, he'd overexerted himself running and his legs felt like jelly, so even if he tried to escape now he would probably just fall over before he could even get out of the bed. Not to mention Nagini at his right, ready to bite him, or Voldemort above and to his left, whose wand remained pointed at Harry's neck.

"Well?" asked Voldemort at length, when Harry had not added onto his claim of an explanation.

"I'm from the future," Harry blurted out, unable to think of anything but the truth. "There was- will be- a battle in the Department of Mysteries- my godfather, Sirius, he- Bellatrix- the Veil-" he stammered, then paused, trying to take a breath.

Astoundingly, Voldemort waited for him to continue without hexing him, open curiosity on his face.

"Bellatrix Lestrange pushed Sirius Black through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries, and I used every Time-Turner they had to get enough time to save him. I saw Nagini attacking someone in the corridor outside the Department when I was leaving, and she must have heard me swearing in Parseltongue and mistaken me for you. She Portkeyed us back here. Then you came in."

"You are saying, then," Voldemort looked at him with narrowed eyes, "that you have knowingly thrown yourself into a time loop which will not close for several months." It was not a question, but Harry gave a somewhat anxious nod.

"You don't think I'm lying, then?" Harry wondered, blinking up into vivid red eyes. Belatedly, he remembered Voldemort was a Legilimens, and averted his gaze to the side.

A cool hand closed around Harry's right wrist, much more gently than he'd have expected, and brought it up to Voldemort's eye level. "Clearly not," the Dark Lord said. "Not the way whoever carved these words into your hand seemed to."

Harry flinched. He'd almost forgotten about the scars. "Umbridge," he volunteered. "She, erm, she's been making us use a Blood Quill for lines."

"Despicable," Voldemort sneered, grip tightening on Harry's wrist. "And you  _ allowed _ it?"

"Well," Harry hedged, "I  _ did _ kind of leave her with some angry centaurs right before I left for the Ministry."

"Hm." Voldemort touched his wand to the back of Harry's hand; there was a stinging sensation, and Harry yelped, instinctively trying to pull away. It felt like his whole hand was being encased in cold water. "What-" he bit out through gritted teeth.

A moment later, the Dark Lord let go, and Harry peered at where the scars were only to realize they were gone. "I have done you a favor, boy," Voldemort informed him. "Weak curse scars like that can be erased with purer Dark magic. Left untended, that scar would have been permanent after a year."

"..Thanks," Harry supposed, rubbing at the now-smooth skin. "But why..?"

"I am, on occasion, a generous Lord," Voldemort informed him primly, but there was something in his expression that told Harry that wasn't the only reason. "A small show of goodwill such as that is the least I can do to begin our negotiations."

Negotiations? "What negotiations?" Harry frowned.

_ "Harry," _ Voldemort sighed, the way Harry did to Dudley when he said something stupid, "you have just opened the largest time loop in recorded history, and you expect me to just leave you to your own devices while it closes?"

"Erm."

"Moreover, you have done so in an attempt to rescue someone from  _ certain death _ by means of the Veil  _ of _ Death - an attempt to thwart the one artifact known to all wizards as undefeatable." Was Voldemort.. smiling? "Do you think for one moment I, Lord Voldemort, would miss a chance to  _ cheat Death and win?" _

Harry blinked. "Well, if you put it that way," he supposed, bewildered.

Voldemort clapped him on the shoulder - he was grinning, actually grinning, and it was kind of terrifying. "My friend," he said - Harry recoiled somewhat to be so referred to - "when you wake up, we will have much to plan."

"Al..alright," Harry yawned, his eyelids drooping of their own accord. "'f you say so.."

"Good night," he heard as from a distance as he drifted into sleep.

"Good night, my Horcrux," Voldemort smiled, gazing down upon him.

He summoned Nagini to his side, cast a protective bubble around the bed, and departed the room.

This evening had been more productive than he'd thought.


End file.
